T.R. Knight and Cynthia Nixon did a great job of hosting the Village Voice Obies last night. As usual it was an epic affair, clocking in at like 2.5 hours. But at least this year they ditched the performances between presenters to trim it a bit. Also they forewarned some of the winners so they had prepared speeches. In some cases this made it longer, in other cases more concise.

The list of names is far too long to mention here but we saw pretty much everyone, we got our chat on at the pre-Obies reception high atop the Kimmel Center(?) with countless downtown theater folk. Always a good time, that.

But it wouldn’t be an Obie write-up without a complaint. The old Obies at Webster Hall were way more fun. They served real food at the reception and you could get soused throughout the evening as the bar stayed open throughout the show. By the second half everyone was liquored up and chatting. You couldn’t always hear the announcers but you had a great time. This year I was so hungry and tired by the end of the show that I skipped the afterparty. How was that? Leave an update in the comments.

The complete list of Obie winners is here.